PVC-For-Sale: Atiku Writes Alibaba Founder, Jack Ma

4073h

Atiku Abubakar.

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has appealed to the founder of Alibaba.com, Jack Ma to permanently remove the Independent National Elector Commission’s branded Permanent Voters’ Cards currently on sale from the site.

Nigerians are still in shock over the discovery of Independent National Elector Commission’s (INEC) branded Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVCs), used for voting during elections, up for sale on Chinese e-commerce site, Alibaba.

Nigerians expressed worries over the sanctity and fairness of the electoral process if PVCs can easily and cheaply be purchased online.

INEC however released a statement on Sunday night to assuage the concerns.

“Several security features and source codes are contained in the Smart Card Readers which enable them to read only PVCs duly issued by the commission,” INEC said.

INEC also said it is already working to “further secure the PVCs and the Smart Card Readers and will continue to protect them from unauthorized and malicious access. It is for this reason that beginning from next week, we are commencing the systematic hardware and software upgrade of all Smart Card Readers nationwide.”

Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has responded to the news of the PVC sale.

Atiku, who spoke through the Director- General (DG) of his Campaign Organisation, Gbenga Daniel, noted that the sale of the PVCs online threatens Nigeria’s desire to build strong institutions, like the INEC.

In an open letter addressed to the founder of Alibaba.com, Jack Ma, Atiku appealed to him to permanently remove these items from site.

The letter was titled, “A matter of national security and electoral integrity involving alibaba.com.”

It reads:

Dear Jack Ma,

Greetings and many congratulations for your entrepreneurial successes. I have great admiration for what you have achieved, especially coming from a humble background.

I write this open letter because my attention has been drawn to an egregious breach of Nigeria’s electoral integrity and thus our national security, by the sale of Nigerian Permanent Voter Cards, on alibaba.com

We are very concerned about this security breach because it threatens Nigeria’s desire to build strong institutions, like the Independent National Electoral Commission. A situation like this could lead to massive vote buying and thus thwart our efforts and instead create strong men where we want to enable strength in institutions.

Permanent Voter Cards were used in the 2015 Nigerian elections and the alibaba platform was also in existence then, yet we did not have this breach. That precedence leads me to believe that if alibaba.com refuses to lend its platform to those unscrupulous elements who want to thwart Nigeria’s democracy, we would greatly increase the chances of a free and fair Nigerian election in 2019.

Therefore, I appeal to you to use your good offices to permanently remove these items from alibaba.com

Furthermore, I do kindly ask you to consider sharing information with Nigeria’s security apparatus that may help expose any impropriety.

The world is currently witnessing the unfolding of allegations, counter allegations and investigations into election meddling in the 2016 American Presidential elections. These occurrences have ensnared several technology, IT and social media platforms including Facebook, Cambridge Analytica and Twitter just to mention a few.

Their involvement has had far reaching political and economic impact which has affected their market capitalisation and consumer confidence. It is also in the light of preventing such a scenario involving Nigeria and alibaba.com that I make these appeals. I trust that I can count on your cooperation.

Thank you and please be assured of my continued admiration and my offer of a right hand of friendship.